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Queenship, Materiality and Memory. the Objects of Blanca of Sicily in the Convent of Sant Antoni I Santa Clara of Barcelona

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Queenship, Materiality and Memory. the Objects of Blanca of Sicily in the Convent of Sant Antoni I Santa Clara of Barcelona No. 16 (Autumn 2020), 205-227 ISSN 2014-7023 QUEENSHIP, MATERIALITY AND MEMORY. THE OBJECTS OF BLANCA OF SICILY IN THE CONVENT OF SANT ANTONI I SANTA CLARA OF BARCELONA Blanca Garí Aguilera Universitat de Barcelona e-mail: [email protected] Received: 2 Nov. 2020 | Revised: 10 Nov. 2020 | Accepted: 30 Nov. 2020 | Available online: 30 Dec. 2020 | doi: 10.1344/Svmma2020.16.13 Resum En este artículo, me propongo seguir el hilo trazado en el tiempo por los objetos de la infanta Blanca de Sicilia en el monasterio de Sant Antoni y Santa Clara de Barcelona. Un hilo que nos lleva hacia el pasado: de los objetos a la tumba, al féretro, a la procesión, a la figura en vida de Blanca, y de ella a la red familiar y dinástica catalano-aragonesa y siciliana. Pero un hilo que también, a través de la lectura atenta de los inventarios, teje hacia el futuro la memoria de Blanca en el convento y nos permite interrogarnos por la vida y la función de los objetos que le pertenecieron. El estudio se aborda metodológicamente desde tres líneas de análisis interrelacionadas: “reginalidad”, “materialidad” y “memoria”, es decir, en primer lugar, plantea el problema de las redes reginales y dinásticas y de sus estrategias promocionales, en segundo lugar, la materialidad de los objetos y su devenir en el tiempo, y finalmente la cuestión de la performatividad de la memoria a ellos asociada. Paraules clau: reginalidad, materialidad, objetos, memoria, Blanca de Sicilia, Leonor de Sicilia, Sant Antoni y Santa Clara de Barcelona Abstract In this article, I intend to follow the traces left by the objects that belonged to the infanta Blanca of Sicily in the monastery of Sant Antoni and Santa Clara of Barcelona. These traces will take us back in time, first to her tomb, her coffin and funerary procession, and later to the figure of Blanca herself and the Catalan- Aragonese and Sicilian family and dynastic network. However, at the same time, through an attentive reading of the extant conventual inventories, these traces will project Blanca’s memory within the convent walls into the future, allowing us to explore the life and function of the objects that belonged to her. Methodologically, the study is based on three interrelated lines of analysis: ‘queenship,’ ‘materiality,’ and ‘memory.’ First, it raises the issue of the personal connections of queens and dynastic networks and their promotional strategies; secondly, it discusses the materiality of objects and their evolution over time; and finally, it deals with the question of the performativity of the memory associated with them. Key Words: Queenship, Materiality, Objects, Memory, Blanca of Sicily, Leonor of Sicily, Sant Antoni and Santa Clara of Barcelona SVMMA 2020 205 Queenship, materiality and memory. The Objects of Blanca of Sicily 1 Blanca Garí 1 In February 1374, two funeral processions made their way through the streets of Barcelona from Santa Eulàlia del Camp to two of the city’s mendicant convents. The first cortège, which took place on Thursday, 9 February, carried the coffin of María Álvarez de Xèrica, Dowager Countess of Empúries and widow of the late Count Ramon Berenguer I —son of King Jaume II of Aragon and Blanca of Anjou— to the Dominican convent of Santa Caterina, were she was to be buried next to her first-born son Jaume, who had died an infant before 1343. The following day, on Friday, 10 February, the second cortège proceeded to the convent of Sant Antoni i Santa Clara carrying the coffin of her daughter-in-law, the infanta Blanca of Sicily, sister of Queen Elionor of Aragon and first wife of Joan I of Empúries, son of Ramon Berenguer I and Maria Álvarez de Xèrica herself. Blanca of Sicily had died in 1369 and her widower had remarried in 1372 to the infanta Joana of Aragon, daughter of King Pere IV of Aragon —known as the Ceremonious— and his first wife, Maria of Navarre.2 In September 1374, Blanca’s remains were transferred to the church of the Poor Clares of Barcelona and buried there. A sort of posthumous dowry, consisting of a series of objects donated by the infanta Blanca, accompanied her into the convent. These objects can be identified fairly accurately thanks to the extant receipt that records their reception by the abbess, and because they were repeatedly mentioned from then until the end of the sixteenth century in the sacristy and convent inventories of the community archives,3 which also mention the tomb of their owner.4 On the one hand, the aforementioned receipt reveals that Blanca had left instructions in her will to endow a benefice in the convent’s church. On the other, the existence of a certain sepulchre that was apparently located in the presbytery, in the chapel of Saint Mary Magdalene, is documented 1 The research on which this paper is based was conducted within the framework of the project Monastic Landscapes (PGC2018-095350-B-I00) and benefited from a grant from the Salvador de Madariaga Senior Researcher and Faculty Mobility Programme (PRX19/00046) at the University of Colorado Boulder. I would like to thank Brian Catlos and Núria Silleras for their warm welcome and the excellent conditions in which I was able to work there. 2 Arxiu Municipal de Castelló d’Empúries (AMCE), Fons Archivo Ducal Medinaceli (ADM), comtat Empúries, 412. I have consulted the documentation of the county of Empúries at the Ducal Medinaceli Archive in the Arxiu Municipal de Castelló d’Empúries, which holds digitised copies of its fonds. I would like to thank the archivists, Marisa Roig and Meritxell Fernández, for their generous collaboration and assistance. 3 AMCE. Fons ADM, comtat Empúries, 6428. 4 Arxiu del Monestir de Sant Benet de Montserrat/Monestir de Santa Clara de Barcelona (AMSBM/MSCB), Inventaris. I would like to thank the SAF (Catalan Federation of Benedictine Nuns), and the archivists Sister Coloma Boada and Irene Brugués, for their continued willingness to help me consult and use the documentation in the Santa Clara fonds. There are six extant convent inventories and twenty sacristy inventories dating from the period between the fourteenth and sixteenth centuries. They are particularly valuable in terms of devotional and liturgical objects. These were seemingly scattered throughout the convent, which in turn provides information about the places where they were kept and used, and often also about their performative function. These inventories have been studied as a source in themselves by Núria Jornet (JORNET BENITO, Núria, 2014), and also in relation to their function by Núria Jornet and myself (GARÍ, Blanca, JORNET I BENITO, Núria, 2017). The projects Spiritual Landscapes http://www. ub.edu/proyectopaisajes/index.php/es/ejes/monasterio-interior [2020/11/21] and Monastic Landscapes include infographics and a database connected with these objects 206 SVMMA 2020 No. 16 (Autumn 2020), 205-227 ISSN 2014-7023 in that same church between the sixteenth and the late seventeenth century.5 This tomb, which could have been Blanca’s, was identified, perhaps erroneously, as that of her sister Elionor of Sicily, Queen of Aragon, from at least 1527 onwards. In this article, I intend to follow the traces left by the objects that belonged to the infanta. These traces will take us back in time, first to her tomb, her coffin and funerary procession, and later to the life of Blanca of Sicily itself and to the Catalan-Aragonese and Sicilian family and dynastic network. However, at the same time, through an attentive reading of the extant conventual inventories, these traces will project Blanca’s memory within the convent walls into the future, allowing us to explore the life and function of the objects that belonged to her. What were these objects like? Where were they kept? Who used them? For what purpose? And, above all, what did the women of the community know about them? What did they remember and what did they forget about them from the time of their arrival in the fourteenth century until well into the sixteenth century? Undertaking this task brings up three major issues that combine to pose many questions and maybe provide some answers. First, it raises the issue of the personal connections of queens and dynastic networks and their promotional strategies; secondly, it discusses the materiality of objects and their evolution over time; and finally, it deals with the question of the performativity of the memory associated with them. Some prior methodological and historiographical considerations are necessary in order to adequately address these three issues in relation to the infanta Blanca, her objects, and her tomb, starting with the question of queenship. Recent decades have witnessed the consolidation of a solid research line based on the study of the power exercised by queens and its multiple facets. Within this framework, monarchy itself has been reconceptualised as something that no longer exclusively concerns the king, but rather the nucleus formed by at least the king, the queen, and the heir to the crown. Special emphasis has been placed on the queens’ capacity for political action, frequently extending the impact of this ‘agency’ to include their parental and family networks, revaluing the role of the infantas within them (EARENFIGHT 2007; SILLERAS 2008; PELÁEZ 2013; ROEBERT 2020:9-29). Some studies have also highlighted the importance and uniqueness of Mediterranean queenship networks and the possibilities that a comparative analysis of their shared strategies might offer (WOODACRE, 2013; ECHEVARRÍA, JAspERT, 2016: 3-33). Finally, the most recent research on medieval monastic landscapes has emphasised the profound significance of the promotion of conventual and monastic communities by reigning dynasties. Many facets of a queen’s power were involved in this promotion, such as those linked to devotional practices, spirituality, and the construction of memory (GARÍ 2013; GARCÍA HERRERO, MUÑOZ FERNÁNDEZ 2017), as well as 5 Arxiu de l’Abadia de Montserrat (AAM), Llibres, 13, fol.
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